Vivo Y17 Review With Pros and Cons

Vivo is one of the fastest growing brands in India, especially in the offline turf. The new offspring of the Chinese company is Vivo Y17, which is a triple camera-wielding phone that was unveiled back in April 2019. Like most other 2019 affordable phones in its class, the Y17 doesn’t miss on modern design and camera trends. But, does it have what it takes to stand amidst the current fierce competition. (Vivo Y17 Review हिंदी में पढ़िए)

So, if you’re out for a new phone and wondering whether this one should be your new buy, then by the end of this review, you’ll hopefully have an answer. Let’s get straight into our Vivo Y17 review.

Vivo Y17 Review: Design, Build and Display

Vivo Y17 looks fashionably familiar when you look and hold the device. At the front, you have a 6.35-inch IPS LCD display with a waterdrop notch and 720 x 1544 pixel resolution. This elegant cutout house a camera that functions as a fast face scan option. The tiny notch complemented by minimal bezels gives an 81.91% screen to body ratio. Although Vivo should have used a Full HD resolution screen, we are sure most generic users won’t notice the missing pixels. That’s also because colors are vibrant and contrast is reasonably high.

Flip to the back, you get a translucent polycarbonate back, with a glossy gradient finish and a subtle texture. Since it could attract a fair share of smudges and is a slippery slime, we would recommend slapping on a case, be it the bundled one in box. At the back, you would find a vertical camera panel, a quick responsive fingerprint scanner and finally a Vivo branding at the bottom.

Vivo Y17 feels a little chunky, which is perhaps an acceptable compromise for the powerhouse of a battery residing within. The volume rocker and power key to the right side are tactile. To the bottom, you will get a 3.5mm headphone jack, micro-USB port, and a faint speaker. Moving to the left, you will find triple slots to insert the Dual SIMs and microSD card.

The phone is available in two color variants: Mineral Blue and Mystic Purple.

Vivo Y17 Review: Performance

Vivo Y17 gave us a fairly decent performance without any hiccup during gaming and multitasking sessions. The handset is powered by a 12nm based octa-core MediaTek Helio P35 chip clocked at 2.3GHz speed. Benchmark scores position the chipset somewhere between Snapdragon 625 and Snapdragon 636.

Having said that, there is only so much trust you can put in Benchmark scores. In practical usage, the Vivo Y17 smooth but not snappy. High-end games like Asphalt 8 and PUBG were playable at low settings.

Our review unit comes with 4GB RAM and 128GB of onboard storage, expandable up to an additional 256GB. Ample available storage gives assurance that the performance won’t degrade much in the long run. A small portion of this internal space is reserved by some 3rd party bloat and the native software ‘features’. Some of these such as Gaana music app could be thrown into the bin, while most of what remain simply waste space.

Vivo Y17 Review: Software

Speaking of the software experience, Vivo’s FunTouch OS iteration 9 does try to be utilitarian but doesn’t quite succeed. It brings in a much-needed design refresh, though. For starters, the native launcher feels meh, for lack of a better word with a poorly organized settings menu and dull animations. Even, the iOS duped Shortcut Center is poorly implemented and it can be a tad inconvenient to find the shortcut you need.

On the other hand, this could be a subjective take coming from a vanilla android fanboy. You might appreciate the slew of features such as- Jovi smart assistant, Game Cube, Motorbike mode, One-handed mode, App Clone, Easy Touch, Smart motion, Smart mirroring, Smart split, Smart click and many more. Yeah, a long and smart-brandished list indeed!

Vivo’s OS which is based on Android 9.0 Pie does checks a lot of boxes when it comes to features. And the software is quite stable (we didn’t run into any bugs or unexpected glitches). Unfortunately, Vivo Y17 still ships with Widevine DRM L3 certification, which is to say that users won’t get HD Streaming on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Vivo Y17 Review: Battery

Now, coming to the major USP of this phone- it’s gargantuan 5000 mAh battery. As a daily driver riding a fair amount of apps and browsing, the phone impressed us with its endurance. After a full charge, it stayed alive and running for more than 1 day and still around 7-8 percent juice left. However, the 18W fast charger in the pack does understandably drag a while to refill the enormous battery.

Battery life is a major gripe for most smartphones these days and this is one area where it shines like a diamond. You could rely on it if you’re a heavy or casual user and won’t have to be anxious about butting in a few extra PUBG and Instagram hours.

Vivo Y17 Review: Camera

Beginning with the sensors and specs, the primary rear camera setup includes a 13 MP (f/2.2), paired with a 16mm ultrawide 8 MP (f/2.2) shooter and finally, a 2 MP (f/2.4) depth sensor. You also get the standard features like LED flash, HDR, and panorama. As for video shooting, you could capture at 1080p@30fps. The selfie game is handled by a single 20 MP ( f/2.0) snapper.

However as the saying goes, ‘Specs could lie’. Let’s get straight into the camera samples and find how the triple shooters, as well as the selfie snapper, performs in real life scenarios.

Night

It’s understandable for a mid-range phone to fumble in such dark shots. Especially in nighttime portraits, the output came out noisy. The Vivo Y17, however, performed better than we expected. Colors are accurate and the metering doesn’t go berserk with light sources in the frame.

Indoor

Details under artificial indoor lighting are better. However, colors are washed out and inaccurate under the indoor lighting.

Daylight

In daylight, the camera captures great details. The Y19 can lock focus pretty quickly and the dynamic range is above average. Edge detection in portrait mode is also above average.

The selfie camera is an above average performer. If selfies are your thing, the Y17 shouldn’t disappoint.

Vivo Y17 Review: Verdict

Before passing our verdict, the crucial question we asked ourselves- What to expect out of a budget entrant? And the answer was simple since you and we both know the offering from the Redmi, Samsung, and Realme. All you need is value for your money.

Vivo Y17 has its strong points like its exceptionally long-lasting battery, trendy design, and decent camera. At the same time, it can’t quite match up to online options like Galaxy A50, Redmi Note 7 Pro, or the Realme 3 Pro. In light of these options, the Y17 currently feels overpriced.

Of course, it’s a different story in the offline segment, which is where the Y17 could probably impress.

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